Of Tails and Tales
by unashamed-shipper
Summary: As a man who hates animals, it's a little tough to be enraptured with someone who works with them for a living.
"I told you, Salamander, I'm not going to go look for a stupid cat for you at the shelter," Gajeel spit over the phone at his best friend, Natsu Dragneel. The guy was crazy about cats, and truth be told, so was Gajeel, but he wasn't about to let that juicy piece of information slip. Natsu knew how to use people's information against him. That's why he was such a great cop. And he hated him for it.

Truth be told, Gajeel loved going to the animal shelter across the street from his house. Animals loved him. Every damn one from snakes to ferrets loved the brooding man, and he just chalked it up to the fact that he just sat there and let the animals sit on his lap. He petted them, sure, but he definitely wasn't going to adopt one of them. All of them pooped, which needed cleaning. All of them ate, which required money. And Gajeel hated spending money. Why spend it if you could save it and find something really awesome?

"I told you, I want a really cool cat. Like a blue one! Yeah, a cat that's blue and that flies!" Natsu told Gajeel, and in turn the man sighed. God, that guy was a strange one. How in the hell was he going to find a _blue_ cat that _flies_? Natsu had always been strange, which is why it confused Gajeel so much why he had such a normal girlfriend. Lucy, otherwise called Bunny Girl by Gajeel, was pretty normal except for her intense love of xxx romance novels and cats.

The reason Natsu wanted a cat so badly was that he wanted to marry Lucy and Lucy loved cats so much that she made it a requirement to marry her. It was one of those things about her that Natsu loved since he also had an affinity for cats. The two were utterly strange people, but they worked together so well that it kind of nauseated Gajeel.

"How am I gonna find a blue cat that flies, Salamander? You make finding a blue cat that flies so damn normal," Gajeel rolled his eyes and picked at his dirt-filled nails.

"I'll pay you fifty bucks to find the cat and I'll also pay you double whatever the cat costs. I just need this for Lucy. Please?" Gajeel could practically see Natsu's puppy eyes over the phone. And Gajeel was a sucker for puppy eyes, no matter whom it was from.

"Fine. You have to order me Chinese when I get back to the apartment, then. Bye." Gajeel shut his phone and began his short journey to the animal shelter.

When he got there, the receptionist told him that it may smell like paint as the paint was still drying from the day before. The walls were painted a bright blue, and Gajeel hated the color instantly. He wasn't a big fan of bright colors; they kind of pained his eyes. That's why his walls were painted a dusty gray. Natsu had originally picked out a fiery red but Gajeel had nixed the idea pretty quickly and slammed down the dusty gray palette on the counter in front of the frightened salesgirl. The dusty gray had stayed with them for years, and he wasn't willing to change the color anytime soon.

The receptionist pointed to a room in the back that had all of the cats in it, and told him to look around as long as he needed with a smile. He grunted his thanks and ambled in to find a short girl with blue hair the same color as the walls standing up on a ladder. She was wearing patterned leggings and a sweater that reached the middle of her very round butt, but it didn't cover all of it. He stared for a few minutes. 'Maybe this was a good idea after all,' he thought to himself, smirking. She was struggling to place a white cat back in his cage and keep her balance. She was shaking like a leaf, and she soon fell to her demise. The cat jumped out of her hands as to land on his feet. Gajeel rushed up and caught the girl bridal style and hoped the cat would be okay.

The cat soared through the air like he was made for flying, and Gajeel watched the cat fall and land in a small bucket of blue paint. 'Well, shit,' he thought, 'I think I just found Salamander his cat.' The girl hopped out of Gajeel's arms and rushed over to the cat, picking him up and using the painter's drop towel to clean the paint off of him. Sure enough, the cat was dyed a bright blue and Gajeel was sure that it wouldn't wash out anytime soon.

"What were you thinking?!" the girl stormed up to Gajeel and pounded her fists on his chest. "That cat could have been killed! I would have been fine," she told him, crossing her arms over her chest and pouting. She looked so cute that he chuckled. 

"Well, shrimp, I had to catch you. That cat is replaceable. A human is not," he told her, smirking.

"Well excuse me for caring about the animals! I happen to care about them, whereas you look like you don't care about anything!" the girl snapped, still pouting.

"Princess, I do care. In fact, I care so much about your precious cat that I am going to buy him. How much for the cat?" Gajeel asked, pulling out his wallet.

The girl just stared at him and opened and closed her mouth like a fish. Usually she had a quick response, but today it just seemed like everything was off.

"Um… cats are $100," she told him, a light flush covering her face. She picked up the cat and bent over to use a drop towel to get the excess paint off him. Thankfully, the feline was perfectly fine but was just dyed blue. As the woman toweled off the cat, Gajeel stared at her. She was beautiful in a way that most people weren't, which sounded cliché but was true. Her hair was bright blue, just like the paint, and her eyes were a warm brown. She was more angular than curvy except for her butt.

'I like her,' he thought, watching her movements. She moved differently: her motions were fluid but angled, and she walked like she was closed off. Gajeel noticed that the woman also had a pencil behind her ear, which would be useful if she needed to jot down notes during the day. She also had a mouth on her. Most girls wouldn't just yell at a 6'3 man that they just met, and especially not one that looked as intimidating as himself.

Once the woman was done cleaning off the cat, they walked up to the checkout desk together where Gajeel completed some forms for Natsu and paid for the cat.

"Here you go," she handed the cardboard carrier that held the animal.

"Thanks, Levy," he told her, spying her nametag on her chest. Levy smiled back in response and waved when he left.

The whole way home, he thought about her. She was a mystery that he was dying to solve. And Gajeel hated mysteries. He liked things to be an open book. And Levy definitely wasn't. Gajeel himself was pretty open towards emotions and feelings, but Levy seemed to hide hers. She was one of the most interesting things he had ever encountered, and damn him if he didn't figure her out.

He got out of his car when he parked, and carried the cat into the apartment.

Natsu rushed over to Gajeel and practically yelled, "Did you find me a cat?"

"Yeah. It's in the carrier," Gajeel pointed down to the carrier. Natsu ripped it open and found his cat, and the feline butted his head against Natsu's closed hand and started purring.

"He's so… happy with me. I think I'm gonna name him Happy!" Natsu held the cat up, and Gajeel could have sworn he saw the cat grin.

"Sure, whatever. That's a really dumb name, but you're a really dumb person, so it works." Gajeel went into his room and closed the door, falling on his bed face first.

If he was going to figure Levy out, he would have to go to the animal shelter a lot more often to see her. And he loved that idea, but the thought of the animals kind of running around all over him made him somewhat sick. And the only way to do that without becoming a nuisance was to become a volunteer himself.

He signed onto his computer and completed the forms, hoping that Levy would see it.

The director of the shelter called him a few days later and asked him to come in and start on Friday with seeing his resume of volunteer experience. Gajeel didn't look like the type, but he did have an impressive resume. He accepted, and a few days later he was walking into the animal shelter to start his first day.


End file.
